Saturday, August 4, 2012

Thank you to Matthew Perez for keeping me honest

Wow, so this Chick-fil-A debacle has gotten people wound up tight. Between the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day where some restaurants ran out of chickens and yesterday's National Same-sex Kiss Day where no one wanted to see couples kissing to get chickens; the only thing worth serving was hell on a stick.

Even myself, who has marched for black civil rights and gay civil rights, was hyped over the fact that this gay nation finally was getting down with some action. Change will never happen if you are continuously talking about how to make things better. You have to go out and do something about it.

I wish my readers could have seen the look on my face when I saw an article by a journalist on CNN iReport titled "I am gay and I am support Chick-fil-A". I could have jumped out of my seat.

Before I go any further I want to thank, Matthew Perez, the author of this three part series on CNN iReport for keeping me honest. You see, as journalists and contributors we can become very passionate about he issues that affect us personally. Matthew has been getting tons of hate mail via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter about the article he wrote that seems to depict a young gay man that actually is supporting Dan Cathy's statement against same-sex marriage.

Now, I wrote and editorial as a counter-stance not to his view of support for Chick-fil-A but to the reasoning of why he would write an article that would make the gay community seem weak and divided. I understand that Matthew was trying to convey his support of free speech and for the gay community not to stoop to a level below being the beautiful alternative people that we are but I was talking more about unity for the LGBTQ community and to show a unified front to any opposition that would support denying the gay community its rights.

At no time did I attack Matthew personally because I understand that we can be on two sides of the coin, agree on the big picture and not agree on the finer points of protest. Not at any point whatsoever is it alright to attack this man personally for the view that he carries about the Chick-fil-A subject but not to play the devil's advocate, Matt does believe in free speech and the hate mail are just anger readers that passionately disagree with his view.

However you understand other people's viewpoints is a fine line but the one belief me and Matt Perez agree on; the worst thing about dirt is that everyone gets dirty and that is a line we don't want to cross.